CPAC 2016-2019: on Foreign Policy

Donald Trump: Defend our American legacy & seize our glorious destiny

Rick Perry: Russia & Syria crises: price we pay for not leading world

How can the greatest nation on earth continue to spend its way to astounding debt without the bill ever coming due? How can we explode federal and state budgets with unreformed entitlement programs without the bill ever coming due?

How can we appease a Syrian tyrant, and embolden his Russian ally, without the bill ever coming due? There is a price to be paid for policies that destroy our economy and embolden our foreign enemies.

And I am here today to say we don't have to accept recent history. We just have to change the presidency. It is not too late for America to lead in the world. But it starts by leading at home. And it starts by returning to the founding principles of our democracy found in the Constitution.

Sarah Palin: The only thing rising under Obama is the Russian empire

Obama started all this. He promised us a safe peaceful world, promised he's got al-Qaeda on the run, yeah, perhaps towards us. And safer? He would gut our arsenal, he allows our enemies to enrich theirs. Man, that's just like a liberal on gun control. Mr. President, the only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke.

He promised to heal the planet and stop the raise of the oceans, but the planet's not listening to Dr. Obama. The only thing rising in his la-la land is the Russian empire. I'm sorry, I'm probably being too hard on the president, after all, who could have seen this coming?

John Bolton: Weak America means trouble in Russia, China, & Libya

• Look at the Middle East, Russia's puppet Assad is still in power.
• Russians are selling weapons to the Egyptian government for the first time since the early 1970s, threatening Israel.
• Iran, working with Russia and running rings around Obama, Clinton and Kerry in nuclear arms talks.
• In Latin America we see Russia re-establishing influence in Cuba and in Venezuela, threatening our own hemisphere.
• In China you've got a major military build-up going on, building their first blue water Naval capability, ladies and gentlemen, while Obama scoffs at our declining Navy.
• But worst of all, worst of all, is Libya. Libya is the paradigm of the Obama doctrine's failures. The attack in Benghazi on September 11, 2012 was a direct attack on the US.

Marco Rubio: Only America can stand up to world totalitarianism

Rubio sought to link the right's resolute belief in American exceptionalism with a call for the US to play a more robust role in confronting bad actors on the world stage: "There is only one nation on earth capable of rallying and bringing together the free people on this planet to stand up to the spread of totalitarianism," Rubio told CPAC attendees, offering a tour d'horizon of affairs in China, North Korea, Iran, Venezuela and Russia.

That posture stands in contrast with Sen. Rand Paul, who argues that the US should be wary of foreign intervention.